What saddens me about this story (aside from the granny attack) is that someone thought they were going to have a pet ferret and didn't know thing one about proper care. Clearly they didn't ferret-proof their residence. Ferrets take a lot of care and attention to make really good pets. Or I should say, people who are willing to put in the time and effort will make really good ferret owners. Ferrets come with all of the benefits of dogs (fun, playful) and the benefits of cats (litter training) but requires you to accept all of the bad things (biting, tearing up shiat) about them, too.

kumanoki:What saddens me about this story (aside from the granny attack) is that someone thought they were going to have a pet ferret and didn't know thing one about proper care. Clearly they didn't ferret-proof their residence. Ferrets take a lot of care and attention to make really good pets. Or I should say, people who are willing to put in the time and effort will make really good ferret owners. Ferrets come with all of the benefits of dogs (fun, playful) and the benefits of cats (litter training) but requires you to accept all of the bad things (biting, tearing up shiat) about them, too.

I baby-sat a tag-team of ferrets for about a week. I'd let them out to play, but I could NOT relax the whole time or ignore them... it seems though, that they want you to relax so they can go poop in a corner (in spite of a clean litter box), or find their way into the very dangerous crevasses like between the refrigerator and counter, under a dishwasher, behind a drier, up a fireplace... still, with all that retroactive ferret proofing, and having lost a few battles with the corner pooping, I would seriously consider ferrets as a great choice for companionship. They were fun, and were well behaved most of the time. They were a lot of fun. YMMV

fringedmyotis:Love me some ferrets, but yeah, they are stinky little mofos. And the toilet habits - sheesh. Not good.

My ferret never used her litterbox, but we discovered she loved to lurk in paper bags and do her business in there. So we'd just leave out a couple lunch bags, she'd poop once or twice a day in them, and we'd toss them out... no mess.

Mongooses tried to steal our lunch while we were snorkeling down in St. John, USVI. They unzipped the backpack it was in without any problem, and I'm ~pretty~ certain that, if they'd had enough time, they'd have figured out how to get the thermal lunchbox open (if only by gnawing through it). After that, tearing open the ziploc baggies inside would have been ... no pun intended, but... a piece of cake. Weaselly little rascals!

Mrs Bander and I kept a few ferrets. We had a couple of cages connected with that black plastic drainage tubing; for a while our living room was part Habitrail. There's a bit of maintenance involved, and they definitely have an odor, but they are also incredibly fun creatures to have around. They seem to be locked in perpetual play mode when they're not sleeping.

Ultimately we stopped keeping ferrets because they die so soon. With a life-span of 5-7 years, you just have time to really get to know them before they're geriatric or cancer-ridden. It was just too sad, too often, especially for Mrs Bander.

I think the cats were glad when we put away the cages and tubing. The dogs seemed to enjoy the ferrets, but the cats... Don't know why, but cats are completely freaked out by ferrets.

Akabander:Mrs Bander and I kept a few ferrets. We had a couple of cages connected with that black plastic drainage tubing; for a while our living room was part Habitrail. There's a bit of maintenance involved, and they definitely have an odor, but they are also incredibly fun creatures to have around. They seem to be locked in perpetual play mode when they're not sleeping.

Ultimately we stopped keeping ferrets because they die so soon. With a life-span of 5-7 years, you just have time to really get to know them before they're geriatric or cancer-ridden. It was just too sad, too often, especially for Mrs Bander.

I think the cats were glad when we put away the cages and tubing. The dogs seemed to enjoy the ferrets, but the cats... Don't know why, but cats are completely freaked out by ferrets.

Same here. Had six of them over a 10 year span. Loveable and endearing, but high maintenance, high cost, and heartbreaking to lose them so quickly.

If you did regular litterbox and bedding changes, plus fed a good quality food, and generally kept their area clean, the smell was minimal.

kumanoki:What saddens me about this story (aside from the granny attack) is that someone thought they were going to have a pet ferret and didn't know thing one about proper care. Clearly they didn't ferret-proof their residence. Ferrets take a lot of care and attention to make really good pets. Or I should say, people who are willing to put in the time and effort will make really good ferret owners. Ferrets come with all of the benefits of dogs (fun, playful) and the benefits of cats (litter training) but requires you to accept all of the bad things (biting, tearing up shiat) about them, too.

Um... cats are fun and playful and litter trained. Why would I want a ferret? Or a dog, by your logic? ;)

Jument:kumanoki: What saddens me about this story (aside from the granny attack) is that someone thought they were going to have a pet ferret and didn't know thing one about proper care. Clearly they didn't ferret-proof their residence. Ferrets take a lot of care and attention to make really good pets. Or I should say, people who are willing to put in the time and effort will make really good ferret owners. Ferrets come with all of the benefits of dogs (fun, playful) and the benefits of cats (litter training) but requires you to accept all of the bad things (biting, tearing up shiat) about them, too.

Um... cats are fun and playful and litter trained. Why would I want a ferret? Or a dog, by your logic? ;)

kumanoki:but requires you to accept all of the bad things (biting, tearing up shiat, stealing absolutely anything that isn't nailed down and hiding it in random hard to reach places around the house) about them, too.

Expanded that for you...

Akabander:I think the cats were glad when we put away the cages and tubing. The dogs seemed to enjoy the ferrets, but the cats... Don't know why, but cats are completely freaked out by ferrets.

Yeah, we had a couple of fairly old cats when my roommate got a ferret, and neither of them cared for his presence at all... He kept trying to play with them, but they wanted nothing to do with him... Especially since his favorite "play" attack was to jump on their back and bite their ear while riding the angry, bucking cat feverishly trying to throw him off!

/He also used to steal all their cat toys and hide them under my roommate's bed...

special20:kumanoki: What saddens me about this story (aside from the granny attack) is that someone thought they were going to have a pet ferret and didn't know thing one about proper care. Clearly they didn't ferret-proof their residence. Ferrets take a lot of care and attention to make really good pets. Or I should say, people who are willing to put in the time and effort will make really good ferret owners. Ferrets come with all of the benefits of dogs (fun, playful) and the benefits of cats (litter training) but requires you to accept all of the bad things (biting, tearing up shiat) about them, too.

I baby-sat a tag-team of ferrets for about a week. I'd let them out to play, but I could NOT relax the whole time or ignore them... it seems though, that they want you to relax so they can go poop in a corner (in spite of a clean litter box), or find their way into the very dangerous crevasses like between the refrigerator and counter, under a dishwasher, behind a drier, up a fireplace... still, with all that retroactive ferret proofing, and having lost a few battles with the corner pooping, I would seriously consider ferrets as a great choice for companionship. They were fun, and were well behaved most of the time. They were a lot of fun. YMMV

(N)CSB: Had a friend who was putting dishes in dishwasher. Turned around to do something else and his pet ferret got into the dishwasher. He closed it without looking and turned it on and left. He was not so pleasantly surprised when he unloaded the dishwasher.

Ermahgerd! As far as pet-related sights go, nothing is better than a tuckered out fert. I had to let mine go due to increasing amounts of heat waves with no air conditioning so I am getting a nostalgic kick out of this thread.